tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59055303542655990452024-03-14T00:27:53.757-07:00Mom with a Dandelion in Her HairTracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.comBlogger496125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-19912082379920894172018-06-09T11:08:00.000-07:002018-06-09T11:08:29.016-07:00Screen Time Alternative!If you have a child in your home between the ages of 2 to 6 years old, I can not recommend enough, for you to have a box of <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> preschool curriculum. Even if they go to preschool, daycare or Kindergarten. It's a great, and easy, alternative to screen time.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-giA-mjf0tsw/WxwV6QyeWzI/AAAAAAABZsE/QcjQvh1V_8IYeQBBvsS43Iqt6uuBrytogCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180609_110009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1323" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-giA-mjf0tsw/WxwV6QyeWzI/AAAAAAABZsE/QcjQvh1V_8IYeQBBvsS43Iqt6uuBrytogCKgBGAs/s640/IMG_20180609_110009.jpg" width="528" /></a></div>
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<i>I am a Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador and I do receive this curriculum for free in exchange for writing about our use of the curriculum. That being said, I get no commission or reward when people who read my blog buy a box of MGT. My reason for sharing is simple, this curriculum, has had a huge positive impact on my family. As a new Mother, I had no idea what my children were capable of, but Mother Goose Time did! They gave us countless "Mother Goose Moments" that I am SO thankful for, even more so now that my oldest is 9, and my middle son is 7! </i></div>
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I have had a box of January's Dinosaur Dig sitting on our dining room floor for months now. This morning, Adam (age 4) and I had some one on one time as his older brothers and Dad were on an outing. I have always wanted to make my time with the kids count, even before going back to work, but even more so now. Our time together in the evenings and weekends is so important. Of course, I still have all the house work and chores to do and less time to do them in, so I can't give them my full attention, all the time. Please don't let this make you feel guilty. My kids spend plenty of time watching cartoons, playing video games or playing on their own while I get stuff done.<br />
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But when I do have an opportunity, like this morning, I will quickly run out of ideas, especially out of ideas that don't cost money. Because of course going out to eat or shopping is a lot of fun, but it adds up! Just when I am about to say "okay Adam, let's put some cartoons on" (because Mommy is out of ideas and wants to get chores done) I remember that box of Mother Goose Time. <br />
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But it's not just a screen time alternative in this situation alone. The MGT activities can easily be set out in an investigation station style and your child can discover the activity and play independently. Often it will launch their imaginations into a new direction and keep them engaged and entertained for a nice stretch of time.<br />
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Today we lengthened our one on one time and got out day 12 to learn about Dinosaur Heads. I set up the calendar for June and we sang the days of the week and months of the year song as he worked hard at cutting out his dinosaur teeth.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These calendar pieces work just as well for June as they do for January! Instead of attaching the calendar pieces permanently, I use something that can stick and re-stick.</td></tr>
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Then he glued the teeth on. Carefully placing the tooth where he wanted and then lifting it back up, putting the glue down and sticking it on.<br />
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When the dino headband was fully constructed he put it on and turned into a dinosaur, it was SO scary!<br />
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After filming this little video I realized he had not eaten breakfast yet. I was trying to feed him cereal but he said he couldn't eat it because he only ate meat. Oh my! But if you notice, with in that role playing is a lot of knowledge. He knows that dinos with sharp teeth eat meat, that's something!<br />
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After he ate some cereal, I did finally convince him, we did some graphing! Yep, graphing. It was math, but he didn't know that!</div>
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He rolled the dino die, looked to see what kind of dino he rolled, then placed a penny on the chart.<br />
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As the pennies added up on the chart we talked about which one had the <b>most</b> rolls, which ones were the <b>same</b> which one had the <b>least</b>. These words are all math terms.<br />
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I didn't even get pictures of the pattern he made using the dinosaur manipulatives. But as you can see, we had a lot of fun, playing and learning and avoiding screen time! <br />
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Please, please, trust me when I say, they grow up fast and <a href="http://www.dandelioninherhair.com/2018/02/losing-homeschooling.html" target="_blank">life can change in a blink of the eye</a>. Don't take for granted these precious and silly toddler/preschool years. Squeeze as many moments like these in as you can!Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-59314815741804417322018-03-08T10:43:00.002-08:002018-03-08T10:43:59.468-08:00The Soccer ManI asked Adam what he wanted to do for his 4th birthday party and he said he wanted a "soccer and chocolate party". He had been starting to play soccer at his daycare and I guess he really likes it. I was able to find a Puma soccer ball and a matching shirt at Ross Dress for Less. <br />
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I was able to take his birthday off so that I could spend the day with him. He will only turn 4 once and soon he will be in school. We spent some time playing soccer in the front yard. We can't play in the backyard because our chihuahua goes bonkers over balls, even giant ones she can't fetch. I was enjoying every second of our day together and just had to get some pictures.<br />
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Such a cool "soccer man".<br />
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And when he was all done with me taking his picture, this is what I got. <br />
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When it got just a bit too cold out, we came back in and played with his new Greek ship from Playmobil. This thing is awesome.<br />
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Our new doggie Mia kept wanting to get into the photo. Since I don't have a good photo of her yet I changed my target. <br />
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She wasn't sure if she in fact wanted to be photographed. <br />
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The eyebrows on this dog are just spectacular. <br />
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We are so blessed to have her. I mean, look at that face!<br />
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Unfortunately, in the middle of the night with 30 minutes left of Adam's birthday, my little soccer man threw up. Not a great way to end the day. I am home another day with him and it has allowed me to document our day. So I will try to see it as a blessing in disguise.Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-32763675449163914822018-02-17T09:36:00.000-08:002018-03-08T10:44:20.602-08:00Losing HomeschoolingI am not going to go into the details, but my whole life got turned upside down this fall. I had everything I had desired. I had my three boys, I was staying home and homeschooling. We had the best schedule and the best set up. Spanish class at a local co-op, support from a teacher through a local homeschool charter school and a network of homeschooling families that are just amazing. My kids had tons of wonderful friends and a well balanced day to day life. Best of all, I got to spend so much wonderful time with them.<br />
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And then I faced a choice, save my family or hold onto homeschooling. Of course, my greatest desire, is for my family to stay whole. So I had to let go of the dream and hang on to Christ. There were too many fears and unknowns for me to try to carry. I just couldn't do it on my own.<br />
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Step one, get my boys established at school. If we weren't going to be homeschooling I really wanted them to go to school at our church's school. I knew they would be surrounded by amazing people because I have gone to church with many of them for years. I knew they would be surrounded by prayer and Christ's love through a challenging time in our lives. So I reached out and we were beyond blessed with a wonderful scholarship.<br />
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Next we set up a time to come visit their classrooms while I talk with the principal. I pick them up from recess a little while later and the boys were BEAMING. "Mom, sign me up!" Lachlan exclaims. My heart smiles, just a little.<br />
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Now here comes the big day. One of my biggest anxieties going into this day was what to pack for their lunches! No kidding. Food is not my strongest asset and having them home I could just grab anything. But cold lunches, everyday, filled with stuff they will actually eat!! What!?!?! It literally sent me over the edge. I got that fear figured out by picking up a cool lunch Tupperware container thing. :) If I filled each section everyday, they should be good. Not only that, but I had friends stock up on boxes of grab and go items from Costco. I have the best community of friends. Okay, lunches packed.<br />
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Up next, the waking up early part. Suck. It's still dark when we have to get up. I tried to prepare us by setting an alarm and slowly moving up the time to the actual time in which we would have to get up. When the day came, it wasn't so bad. But they were also super excited.<br />
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We are up, we have our lunches packed and our backpacks on.<br />
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Lachlan, ready for his first day!<br />
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One thing that really helped with this transition is that they were already attending the morning program at our homeschool charter school two days a week. So the classroom environment and having to get out the door in the morning wasn't too big of a shock.<br />
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And then, I drove away, from MY boys. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed all day.<br />
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People, I missed them.<br />
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The first day the time moved slowly. The second day, I still cried, but the time they were away went a little faster and then a little faster.<br />
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I had many people surround me and my family and pray for us. And that is what got us through.<br />
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I had one person tell me, this change doesn't have to last forever, maybe you will be able to homeschool again. That helped. The same person told me that fears and anxieties are not of the Lord. From that day forward, every time I had those feelings creep up I prayed and I let go. This happened every hour for a while. Maybe more often.<br />
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I was able to experience what another friend called "stupid peace". Peace during a time when there should have been no peace in my heart.<br />
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We have had a few hiccups. The boys weren't where they needed to be in their writing skills specifically. Third grade seemed like a little bit too much for my oldest so we adjusted a few weeks in and tried second grade, where he is thriving. We've had backpacks left in the car and one day it took an hour and a half to convince my oldest son to go to school. There were some behaviors and disobedience to work through. But God is good, all the time, God is good.<br />
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I was able to attend the first chapel the boys attended at school and a young boy in Peter's class got up in front and said he wanted to pray for the new kids at school, that they feel comfortable and love school. It melted. my. heart. It also turns out that school is a better place for Lachlan right now. He really didn't see any reason why he needed to learn the things his Mother was trying to teach him and we were frequently butting heads. I was beginning to feel like it was holding him back. But he is a competitive boy, and seeing what his peers are doing has really motivated him, not defeated him as I feared.<br />
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But through another rocky patch the boys had consistency, and that is what I had hoped school would bring.<br />
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I still miss them. And I often find myself in moments of despair wondering what's the point of this life. I mean, is this what society wants of us, to never be together as a family? It sucks. I get my family on evenings and weekends. My whole life consists of "getting through the week".<br />
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I just keep praying for God to give me a new perspective. For him to continually refresh my spirit.<br />
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If you are in a time in your life where you also may lose homeschooling or have already lost it, you are not alone. It's HARD, really hard. But there can be good mixed in too. I pray that God will carry you through, as he has for me.<br />
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Next up, going back to work and finding childcare!!! Ack.<br />
<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-82381869729981971282018-02-17T08:54:00.003-08:002018-02-17T08:54:35.694-08:00Dinosaur Fossils with Mother Goose Time - a reflection.The last time we were able to squeeze in any <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> was January 8th. Before I went back to work. I have to tell you, adjusting to working full time with three children is HARD. I do hope to write about that more in another post. And hopefully you won't mind if I am frank with my thoughts. I am not sure if many people talk about all the little hard things, and how much it really sucks. <br />
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But back to these precious memories. We got out the day on fossils where we dumped a bag of sand in a tray. The letter we are working on is L, which is great because it's brother's letter. I put the Ls in the sand and he used the paint brush to write L along side the hands-on letters.<br />
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So proud of his accomplishment. He really just started getting great at writing over night!<br />
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Next he tried his own letter, A is for Adam. <br />
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We had a little friend that I happened to be babysitting on this day and I gave her all the dinos and two containers to move the dinos from one to the other. She also opened and closed the lids and was happy for quite a long time.<br />
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By now I had the paper dino bones all cut out and I buried them in the sand on the tray. We talked about how paleontologists use brushes to uncover bones because the bones are fragile. Talk about some great vocabulary.<br />
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Piece by piece he found and slowly uncovered the bones. <br />
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Taking each one and placing it on the paper next to him. <br />
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Then he covered the paper in glue and we put the bones together like a puzzle. Next I had him pinch some of the sand from the tray and sprinkle it over the exposed glue on the paper. <br />
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He learned so many wonderful things on this day. Some great vocabulary. Practiced some spacial awareness by putting the puzzle of bones together and did some awesome writing practice. All while having a ton of fun! <br />
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Now that we have settled a little bit more into our routine, I really should, at the very least, pull out some <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time </a>every Saturday, just to spend some amazing one on one time with my little man. <br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-89907269247943924682017-11-12T15:39:00.000-08:002017-11-12T15:39:52.081-08:00Day One of Our Rainforest Adventures<span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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Day 1 was all about Jaguars. I set the J is for Jaguar <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Make & Play</span> craft up at the table for Adam. But later that day we had a whole bunch of kids over and it started to get kind of loud, so I asked if anyone wanted to make a Jaguar. Even though they were older kids, they were super excited and soon, it got a lot quieter in my house as they happily worked on their Jaguars.<br />
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I also got out the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I Can Read</span> book so that Adam and I can read through it all month long. He often hears me tell his brothers they have to do their reading and he LOVES having his own reading assignment.<br />
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Every new theme with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> means they get a new name tag and every month on the first day we write our names. I write Adam's name with a yellow marker and he traces over it. He was quick to finish his name this month so he decided to flip it over and try his hand at some free hand As.</div>
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The older boys were at the other end of the table doing an old fashioned spelling test. I put a divider up between them, dictated words for them to spell and then we graded it together after. They were both upset that they didn't get them all correct because that's what we are used to with homeschooling. I quickly explained to them that getting only one or two wrong is really good!! Mommy used to miss a lot more. This brought them a lot of relief.<br />
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The next lesson was called <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Circle Spots </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">and the idea was to cover a large paper in circle's like the spots on a Jaguar. They recommend we cover a tables surface in large pieces of paper and then provide cups and other circle objects to trace. I grabbed what I had handy and used that old printer paper that's all attached in one long sheet. My husbands previous employer found a case of it in an old office storage area. Jackpot!</span><br />
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I was very nervous to present this activity to Adam. I knew he would like it and want to do it but I thought he might get really frustrated by the items sliding as he was tracing.<br />
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But here's the thing. He surprised me again and he was successfully able to hold the items in place as he traced. If he did have a little hiccup, he didn't get angry, just fixed it and kept going.<br />
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These are huge signs of development for Adam. The social and emotional development to shrug off frustration, and the physical ability to hold an item in place while tracing.<br />
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Observing Adam as he works through a project is called Authentic Assessment. I have observed Adam enough times doing various activities using a variety of skills that when he "surprises me", I am actually observing and assessing a leap in his skills and abilities. As a homeschool Mother in a state where no documentation of work is required for a preschooler I can do this assessing very informally. But if I were in a state that required documentation, <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> would make it so easy!!<br />
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In fact, I could look at the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">developmental continuum</span> under <b>Self Concept</b> and see that under 1.3 <i>Identifies and manages</i> feelings Adam would be right at <i>Benchmark D</i> "Recognizes personal feelings. Controls impulses with reminders." Although, this time, he didn't need a reminder and was able to control those emotions on his own. So maybe he's on his way to <i>Benchmark E</i>!!<br />
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Over the last few years I have been taping Adam's name tags to the back of our <b>Circle Time</b> display board. This is another fun way of assessing Adam's growth. And not to worry, if you don't know where to start with collecting work samples, <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time </a>will take you step by step through that as well.<br />
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But if you look closely, the name tags at the top have his name, written by me, and then scribbles all over the place. As they get towards the bottom you begin to see mostly his name with very few scribbles because he has started to trace directly over the lines. Except of course on the rainforest one. He seemed to have some fun drawing a few extra lines on that one, maybe they are vines in the jungle.<br />
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I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into a "day" with Mother Goose Time. We have incorporated it in so many avenues of our life. Whether it be neighbors coming over to play or serious Preschool learning and work for my little guy so he can be like his big brothers.<br />
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I love to use this blog to document Adam's learning adventures. I feel so blessed to have a record of all that he has done. But it's also fun to sit down and reflect. It was in this reflection that I realized these moments when Adam "surprises me" aren't surprises at all, but assessments in disguise. The only reason I am surprised is because it's a skill or ability Adam was not capable of before, but now he is! They are in fact observations of skills gained and growth made!<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-56754420777572732832017-11-06T16:29:00.001-08:002017-11-06T16:29:14.702-08:00How to Set a Toddler TrapBefore you get worried, this type of trap won't hurt anyone but it will expand their mind and abilities!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">**This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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Sometimes it's hard to do an official "day" of <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time </a>lessons and activities. When that is the case I have a lot of fun setting up "toddler traps". I actually call mine "Adam Traps" because that is my intended target around here. He is my 3.5 almost 4 year old little man. So maybe, I should officially call him a preschooler, but I still struggle with not calling him baby Adam, so one step at a time please.<br />
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There are many names for what I call "Adam traps". Some call them <b>Investigation Stations </b>or <b>Invitations to Play</b>. It's a pretty simple concept, you set up an activity in a special location for the child to find and investigate on their own. This is good for my Adam who has always been very independent. When he happens upon an activity and he chooses to investigate it further you can just see him beaming with pride and he has a lot more commitment to the task when it was his decision.<br />
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Here is what you do. First you set out an activity at one of their spots or you set it up on the floor or somewhere that will catch their eye. Here is the first "trap" I set. I put out this Mother Goose Time math activity. We had done this once before so I knew he would know what to do. The objective is to have them roll the pocket cube and then put that many "clouds" (cotton balls) in the sky on the paper.<br />
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The second trap I set was at the table. I put his <b>My Little Journal</b> on the table with his name written in yellow. We have done this a few times now, so again, I knew that he would know what to do. I set the green marker next to the journal and he knows to trace his name. I also included colored pencils so he could draw a picture on the cover if he wanted to. You can also see his chocolate milk is sitting there and his favorite Wii controller. I figured he might just climb up to the table to look for those items and discover his journal and I would catch him in my trap.</div>
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It didn't take long until the first trap was successful. Caught him! I didn't want to scare away the toddler so I just took a quick picture from behind. </div>
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Here is a side by side.<br />
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A little while later I was able to get him to participate in the second trap. But I had to make it more enticing. I sat down at his spot and asked him to tell me his favorite weather. This was the journal prompt for the cover from <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>. He said the sun and I asked him what he liked to do in the sun and I started to draw a stick figure drawing of Adam flying a toy airplane outside in the sun. He of course wanted to join in and then took it from there.<br />
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He wrote his name first.<br />
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Then he added his own touch to the cover photo.<br />
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The key is, I did not ask him if he wanted to participate because it's too easy for a toddler to say no. I just got him intrigued and because it was his decision he was totally invested. He did page after page in his journal. He wrote beautifully!<br />
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Big Cs and little Cs.<br />
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He did perfect #4s.<br />
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I love how these <b>My Little Journals </b>have the letter and then shapes or lines that, if practiced, will help in the formation of the letter.<br />
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On this page Adam drew his "heart beat" because we were at the hospital the weekend before because of a severe case of croup. They had him on a monitor and we watched his heart beat.<br />
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On the very last page Adam was determined to write his very own A, with out tracing. I gave him some step by step guidance through writing the letter on his own. "Line up, then down, then frog jump, and draw a line across." He did a few that looked more like a triangle and then nailed his very own and very first A!!<br />
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You can find your own "Toddler Traps" on Pinterest, there are thousands of ideas. Look for keywords of Invitation to Play, Investigation Stations, or Toddler Tray Play. Of course, you can make it super simple on yourself and order a box of <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> where all the Pinterest ideas are brought to life with stellar graphics, great printing, and delivered right to your door. Not to mention the fact that they are guaranteed to be educational and easily adaptable to your child. It's up to you of course and your budget, but I promise you won't regret it if you do decide to buy a box. Either way, set a <i>Toddler Trap </i>for your little one, and see what happens!<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-68326421525039197252017-10-11T14:24:00.000-07:002017-10-11T14:24:01.805-07:00Why is Preschool Even Necessary in a Homeschool Family?We homeschool our three boys. The older two boys are only two years apart and Peter, the middle child, never saw any reason why he should not do what his older brother was doing. So the two boys are at approximately the same grade level on many things. I can pretty much teach the same thing to both boys with only slight adaptations for attention span. You would think, that because I am only teaching children at two different grade levels (older boys and preschool) that finding time to schedule in preschool would be easy, but it is <span style="font-size: large;">NOT</span>. I can't imagine, how a homeschooling Mom could do preschool and multiple other levels of teaching at once. When I get overwhelmed preschool is typically the first thing dropped from our schedule, I mean, is preschool really necessary?<br />
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Preschool is necessary and for me the number one reason is - t<b>ime</b>. <i>One on one time with my child</i>.<br />
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I am so fortunate to receive <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> in exchange for writing about our experiences. However, even if I had to pay for <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>, I would somehow find it in my budget to buy at least ONE box and here is why. <br />
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My kids have never been ones to sit on my lap and enjoy a book, they were too busy for that sort of thing. And we all know all the studies that show how important reading with your child is to their development. Much of what I have heard from those studies is that it's not necessarily the reading part but the time of closeness with your child while building vocabulary. This is where Mother Goose Time <i>saved us</i> - quality time together exploring, learning and building vocabulary.<br />
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When you buy your first box of Mother Goose Time you get a Welcome Kit with all you need to set up a stellar Circle Time display. Every morning you can spend time with your child discussing the weather and what clothes they should wear, putting up the calendar piece, singing about the days of the week and the months of the year.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just a walk down memory lane. This is when Lachlan was little and we were having some fun with Mother Goose Time.</td></tr>
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Then you get to dive into the Daily Discovery Bags. There are 20 in each box meant to last you one month. But you really can pick any topic you think your kids would be interested in and take as long as you want to work through it. The calendar pieces can be used over and over again if you adhere them with poster tack so you can make the 20 Discovery Bags stretch as long as it works for you.<br />
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Each box introduces three letters, two numbers, a shape and a color. So in your box you will have activities that really hone in on those things each month. What this means is that if you just buy one box, you won't get the complete set of alphabet letters, and numbers. But you can always buy a set of flashcards if that is important to you and use some of the teaching techniques you will learn from MGT to introduce the other letters and numbers. This year though, you will get all the colors and shapes which came in the Welcome Kit. You also get an alphabet strip to put on your Circle Time display. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tiny Peter learning about Alligators and the letter A.</td></tr>
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But I personally, wouldn't be too worried about the letters. There is so much more to preschool than learning your ABCs and 123s. In fact, many homeschoolers choose to homeschool just to allow their children to be able to slow down in those areas and just enjoy being a kid and exploring. That's what <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> is so good at!! They cover so many amazing and wonderful topics, far MORE than just letters and numbers. They follow all the current best practices and are constantly doing their research. With this curriculum everything is explored through a multi-sensory approach full of fun and play. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Learning about Vibration Pollination.</td></tr>
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Now back to the goal of time with our kiddos. We all want to spend quality time with all of our children, but it can be hard with so many demands on us as educators, homemakers, wives and mothers. This is why, when the moment comes and you can grab a Discovery Bag and explore with your little one, <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> will <b><span style="font-size: large;">instantly</span> be worth it's weight in gold</b>.<br />
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I am speaking from personal experience here. Life has been busy and hectic lately, who am I kidding, it always is. We have been diligent at getting school done with the older boys but not very good at preschool with Adam. But on this day, Adam hopped up at the table as his brothers were working on school and asked to do something too. It was easy, I pulled out Day 1's Discovery Bag from the <i>Weather All Around Us</i> theme.<br />
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We jumped right into the <i>Make & Play</i> craft with the goal of making a sun. Everyone became interested in the craft, some might say distracted. But it was good for us to work on a project like this <span style="font-size: large;">together</span> and we still got all the other school done too. Peter and Lachlan heard we were making a sun and had to make a re-creation of the solar eclipse which is still fresh in our minds.<br />
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Adam colored his "sun" blue and then I showed him the technique they used on the example of using the small souffle cup as a stamp.<br />
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Lachlan made a sun on one side and the moon on the other.<br />
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Adam grabbed the large souffle cup and cut the edges. He really enjoyed exploring every detail of the materials that were provided for us.<br />
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As they were working I got out the Circle Time display and got it all updated. I grabbed the first letter from this month which was in Day 2's bag and put it up.<br />
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Then I made my letter station on the fridge. This is the letter magnet set by Leap Frog and the Muscle Movement cards from Fundanoodle. Adam loves to explore this station and really enjoys learning his letters. I put up a new letter every few weeks following the MGT schedule, but you can easily do this on your own. If he pushes on the magnet it sings a song that helps him learn the sound that each letter makes. Then, if he wants to take the time he can trace the letter C.<br />
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After that I said today's date and we counted to 9.<br />
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At this point Adam went to the bathroom and I thought he just had to go potty. But it turns out that what he was doing was washing the blue off of the souffle cup because he didn't want it to be blue anymore. He came back to the dining room in tears that he had ruined his paper. Poor guy.<br />
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Thankfully I had another large souffle cup that I was able to trim down to be small like he wanted. Then he colored it red instead of blue. He looked up to give me a nice smile but he was not going to stop coloring for nothing.<br />
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The older boys were now done with their MGT craft and back to business. They put their reading glasses on to get started and Adam decided he wanted reading glasses too.<br />
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He <span style="font-size: large;">was </span>doing his reading after all! This I Can Read book was in last months box. We love all of these little readers which have repetitive phrases easy for little ones to pick up and they each include some of the most commonly used words that the kids can pick up as site words, long before we realize they have the ability.<br />
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To make Adam feel happy and included, we got out an old pair of sunglasses and popped out the dark lenses. I think it worked.<br />
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Next he hopped up on my lap to read his book. He grabbed a word pointer and he found the word "is" as we read through the book, which we did at least three times. After the first time he would hush me as I tried to read and said "no, I read it." Okay Dude, go for it.<br />
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When he reads it, the words aren't always perfect, but he tells one heck of a story and that is such an important part of the process of reading.<br />
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The last thing I did was to write his name on the provided nametag, in a thick yellow marker. Then I left it at his spot at the table with a thin red marker sitting next to it. He knows what his job is now, because we have done this a few times. He follows the yellow lines with his red marker as best as he can.<br />
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If this was my one box of <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> that I could fit in the budget, I would write his name in yellow, then laminate it and he could practice writing his name everyday using a dry erase marker.<br />
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Later Adam asked for another nametag and he drew a perfect square and then rectangle. Inside the rectangle he drew a bunch of lines which he explained to me as "all of my family standing up!"<br />
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We had so much fun! And it took me about 2 seconds to prepare. Well I guess I haven't ever timed myself to find out how long it takes to cut open a Discovery Bag, but I think you get the idea.<br />
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Preschool is necessary for so many reasons but for me the most valuable of these is this quality time I get to spend with my children! That's what being a <a href="http://www.dandelioninherhair.com/p/about-me_20.html" target="_blank">Mom with a Dandelion in Her Hair</a> is all about. And I just have to give you a quick recap on me. I am not a crafty person, I am not an amazing homemaker that makes all the other Moms jealous, my house is not spotless, my children are not always clean or dressed, I do not spend hours a day planning lessons. With out <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>, the reality is, my poor little man would be left out. I wouldn't have the time to collect all the resources to do these things with my kids. I mean, where does one purchase a souffle cup anyways??<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adam's souffle cup sun!</td></tr>
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-25684544542196446792017-09-25T09:12:00.001-07:002017-09-25T09:12:38.304-07:00Do you hear what I hear?<span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links. </span><br />
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In Oregon we heard much needed rain fall on our rooftops and on our forests. As soon as it rains I consider it candle lighting season and I just couldn't choose which one to light so I lit them all.<br />
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In the second week of the <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">My Amazing Body</a> theme we learned all about the five sense. On this day we were focusing on the sense of hearing and we made our very own musical instrument out of a bowl. First he colored the paper bowl, then I helped him stretch two rubber bands over the bowl. When you pluck the rubber bands it makes an awesome sound. <br />
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We did things a bit backwards (for us) and did the <b>Make & Play</b> craft at the table as we were eating breakfast. Then, after breakfast, I moved the <b>Circle Time</b> board to the living room so we could sit on the rug and try to work through the full <i>Circle Time routine</i>. I asked the opening question about hearing, we checked the weather, talked through the days date, and I set out a few of the tools we were going to use that day. <br />
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This month I put all the calendar pieces on the calendar and created a gold star that I could use to mark the current day. I was putting the dates up as we worked through the month but if we got a few days behind it would take a lot of time to catch up on our dates and delay the start to our day.<br />
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Here is a close up of the gold star.<br />
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Once we completed all the <b>Circle Time</b> stuff we moved into the <i>My Senses Game</i>. We were given a beautiful spinner with the five senses and cards with photos of items we could either hear, touch, see, smell or taste. Some of them we could do multiple things with of course. You can smell a skunk and possibly touch a skunk. <br />
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He spun a nose, I asked what he could do with his nose, smell of course, then asked which item he could smell. He found the rose first.<br />
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Next he spun an ear and I asked him what he does with his ear. He pointed to his ear but gave me no response so I held my hand up to my ear like you can see him doing and asked again. Honestly, I don't think we ever talked about how our ears hear, so he couldn't come up with the word. See! Even the topics you think have been well covered by your little one in everyday life haven't been. The information was never put together for him in this way. <br />
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Now we were off to find something we could hear. He pointed straight at the french horn. <br />
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Here we go, spinning again and this time we got the mouth. What do you do with your mouth? "Eat something" he said. True. <br />
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Then he found the banana picture at the same time he happened to be eating a banana.<br />
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So I asked him, what does a banana taste like? That's when I got the face you see below. He took a bite and looked up as he chewed and thought about what a banana tasted like. "A banana" he said.<br />
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Fair enough. I am not really sure how I could describe a bananas taste either. But it was fun for him to ponder. The older boys were around as we were discussing this and I asked them which part of the mouth tastes. Lachlan knew it was the tongue and that we had little bumps on our tongue that did the tasting. I am assuming I can thank the "Magic School bus" for this scientific understanding.<br />
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At this point I lost Adam, he was ready to move on. We had only one more activity to do to complete the day and it was a science experiment. <br />
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So I gathered all of the supplies and put them together and left them by the <b>Circle Time</b> board. I figured there would be a natural time in the day where Adam would become curious and we could pick up the items and we would get started. We were to drop the items in this metal bowl one at a time into the bowl and sort them by which items were LOUD when they hit the bowl and which were <i>quiet</i>.<br />
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This month all the Blog Ambassadors are talking about their routines. Ours has always been pretty simple, we start at breakfast, usually doing <b>Circle Time</b> while we eat. I ask about the weather, we talk about the date, study the pattern on the calendar, count along with the numbers, talk about the letter and the sound it makes. Sometimes we sing the alphabet as I point to all the letters along the bottom. We almost always sing the days of the week song and the months of the year song. Usually by that time Adam is almost finished with eating breakfast and I get out one or two of the days activities that can be done at the table. When he is ready to get down he is free to do so and I gather supplies for any remaining activities and leave them out for us to grab later in the day.<br />
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However, on this day we did things a bit different. We have been going to a preschool co-op where they are using <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> and doing a formal <b>Circle Time</b> with other preschoolers once a week. This inspired me to try to get him down in front of the board on the floor for a nice one on one formal <b>Circle Time</b>. It went pretty well and I think I might try to incorporate this slightly switched up routine into our weeks more often. <br />
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Since our <b>Circle Time</b> has always been so informal I have never done much research or looking into how to do a good<b> Circle Time</b>. But recently I have been watching videos and gathering ideas from the other <a href="https://feedly.com/mothergoosetimepreschoolcurriculum" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassadors</a> and hope to keep testing and trying out a variety of options to see what works best for us.<br />
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And now it's the big kids turn. Lachlan finished up his writing assignment and then spend quite a while building a Lego RV.<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-35654909364453493452017-09-16T09:24:00.001-07:002017-09-16T09:24:11.875-07:00Mother Goose Time - at the counter, at the table, preschool co-op, Grandma's house and outside! <span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links. </span><br />
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We have been having a lot of fun learning about "My Amazing Body" with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>. When we learned about heads we made paper bag puppets. Adam wanted to stand on his chair while he worked and I was afraid he would fall off so I moved him to the learning tower at the counter. He was able to stand and move and wiggle with out a worry of falling off. <br />
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He built himself a nice little puppet with brown hair and a yellow shirt, oh and four eyes!<br />
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Later we got out our tanagrams and built people using the shape design mat this time moving back to the table.<br />
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But not only have we been learning with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> at home, we have also been learning with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> at our brand new preschool co-op. One of our fellow bloggers is teaching the preschool class and she made an amazing interactive <i>Circle Time</i> board. It's magnetic and the metal is screwed to heavy wood boards that can be laid on the ground and walked on. We all sit around the board as we stick the magnets on and then sing the songs.<br />
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Here is a little guy walking right across the board as he chooses the weather for the day.<br />
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Next Stephanie has us move onto stations. At the first station we investigate, since we were learning about islands, we floated our alphabet islands in a little bin of water and tried to see what we could balance on them. <br />
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When it was just one square it was really hard. <br />
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If we got it just right we could make them balance.<br />
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But then I helped Adam connect all four alphabet squares. We could balance everything on their at once!<br />
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It was so much fun to do <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> in a room full of other preschoolers. I was asked to teach the class initially but I knew Adam most likely, wouldn't let me. I was right. He wouldn't let me leave his side. Maybe after a few weeks he will. For us though, this is the best case scenario. I can help Stephanie as an assistant, stay with Adam and give him the opportunity to learn with his peers!<br />
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Adam also made a pirate patch and posed with his brothers. They are taking a conversational Spanish class. We are only there for an hour every Wednesday, but everyone LOVES it! <br />
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Did I mention that it's really hard work to do preschool for an hour?<br />
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Another new thing for us this year is the morning program at my boy's homeschool charter school. They are going from 9 to noon on Tuesday and Thursdays. The school is in the next town over but it's only 6 blocks from my parents house. So we go there while we wait for brothers. Since <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> is so easy to pack, I throw it in a bag and we are ready to go. So we got to do Mother Goose Time at Grandma's. He worked on his pocket and checked on Grandpa who was chatting on the phone.<br />
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I put a little tape on the end of the string to make it easier for Adam to thread. He went up and down through the holes in perfect order. <br />
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And Grandpa is still on the phone. Grandpa was talking to Uncle Dale and teased that Adam was doing school to learn more, "as if Adam needs to learn more" he said. They sure do get a kick out of his vocabulary. <br />
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After he completed the pocket I wrote his name in pencil and he traced it with a crayon. <br />
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Now here we are at a new location! Lachlan insisted that we move outside for school on this day. The big boys were doing their math so I brought out Adam's math which was the pocket cube and tanagrams. But he wouldn't have it. He wanted a paper and pencil because that's what brothers were doing. So I got out his <i>My Little Journal</i> and turned it to the number one page and the number two page. He traced a bunch of number ones and then did the twos perfectly. <br />
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After that we moved onto these awesome and new hidden pictures. These things are so cool and captivating for all kids. So much so it was hard for the big boys to focus. There were hidden pictures with letters in them, so they had to find the skirt on a girls dress with the capital letter H hidden in it. Or the shirt with the capital letter A hidden in it. <br />
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He had a great time working through every single one. We got to talk about all the letters and shapes hidden in the pictures and it really reinforced his knowledge and helped us introduce some new concepts too.<br />
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These are my new favorite learning tool from Mother Goose Time. For now anyhow, I am sure I will have a new one tomorrow, they are all just so good!<br />
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Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-77076058022309165442017-08-30T10:30:00.000-07:002017-08-30T10:30:46.338-07:00Is Mother Goose Time Worth the Money? - How we use it and could we do it with out MGT.<span style="font-size: x-small;"> *This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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First up, how we use Mother Goose Time. <br />
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We have continued to fly through the Superhero theme from <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>. In the first week we built our superhero wardrobe, in the second week we learned about superhero powers. First super speed. Since we were talking about running super fast, our <b>Inspiration to Create</b> was all about shoes. <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> provided us with this colorful inspiration photo of a bunch of feet and shoes. The <b>Inspiration to Create</b> art projects are meant to be <i>process based</i> art versus <i>project based</i> art. <i>Project based</i> is creating art with a goal of specific outcome, <i>processed based</i> art is more about the process of creating with little concern for the outcome of the piece. (None of this I knew before using MGT.)<br />
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So with that in mind, I wanted to show you the stages Adam went through as he created. First he looked at the inspiration photo and saw all the colors. He grabbed his markers and added all the colors he had seen. Then he took a moment to admire his work.<br />
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I had supplied him with a hole punch and a red shoe lace. We worked together to punch holes in the corners and he started stringing the lace through the holes. <br />
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When he got through the third hole, he discovered that his lace was not long enough to get through the forth hole and he got very upset. I suggested we tie the extra lace I had to the first lace to make it extra long. <br />
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The lace was finally able to string through all four holes and he was very happy. <br />
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Next we learned about <b>Super Strength</b> and built our own dumbbell. He painted two paper plates and when he was done he kept painting the paper underneath. <br />
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Then our chicken jumped on the towel draped over the wheelbarrow and was surprised to sink down.<br />
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We watched the solar eclipse.<br />
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After the paint had dried (a few days later) I cut holes in the paper plates, rolled up the black paper and placed the paper plates on the ends. Now we had a proper dumbbell to do some strength training with. <br />
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We were given this <b>Strength Training</b> spinner to spin and then do the exercise. We did bicep curls, side raises, shoulder press, and squats. <br />
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Then we went to the eye doctor and Adam sat in the chair "like a big brother". This is what he calls himself when he does something a big boy can do because he wants to be like his big brothers. <br />
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Then we went to the dentist where they have the best waiting room toys ever. <br />
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He also got his very own dentist chair "like his big brothers". <br />
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Eventually I took the time to set up our <b>Circle Time </b>display for the coming year. All this stuff comes in the <b>Welcome Kit </b>you get when you order your first box of <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>. You get the letters, the calendar, the theme poster and the topic poster new with each month. <br />
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I am so thankful for how easily Mother Goose Time fits into our crazy life. It allows for me to have priceless moments of learning and creativity with Adam. Moments I would not have the time or energy to put together myself, moments that prepare him for Kindergarten. This alone makes <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time </a>worth every penny. <br />
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It did get me curious though about the actual monetary value of <a href="https://secure.mothergoosetime.com/get-started/?nsi=1502470514" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>. So I took the time to put together the cost of buying <i>some of the things</i> you get in a box of <a href="https://secure.mothergoosetime.com/get-started/?nsi=1502470514" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> from Amazon. I wanted to see what I would have to pay to put together something like this on my own. <br />
To buy a puzzle, a calendar and weather display, two music CDs, a bag of STEAM manipulatives, and a bag of counting manipulatives, a children's book, basic craft supplies like construction paper, googly eyes and cotton balls we are already at $59 approximately. But I ran out of time to keep shopping, I would need to look for children's games, and many more craft supplies to really find out the true value. (Maybe a more detailed post is required.)<br />
For a box of MGT with supplies for one child it's $67 a month (plus shipping), less if you pay for more than one month at a time. But in each box you get so much more than the basic items I priced on Amazon. You get all those things and more all put together in a theme that your child will LOVE. On top of that, you get detailed instructions on how to carry out activities that will teach and train your child in 33 areas of skill development. Which translates to a peace of mind, another thing that is hard to put a price tag on. AND it's easy to do! You get 20 daily discovery bags that are filled with everything you need, you just open and go.<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-77113240892308341722017-08-17T10:53:00.001-07:002017-08-17T10:53:27.803-07:00Building a Superhero Wardrobe with Mother Goose Time<span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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In the first week of fun with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>'s Superhero theme we created our Superhero wardrobe. Starting with a superhero symbol and then the cape of course. My oldest was gone on cape day so we had one extra set of supplies and asked our little neighbor if she wanted to come over. Her and Adam are such a good pair. They play so well together. I helped cut out the cape shape and they decorated with stickers and markers.<br />
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The cuteness is a bit overwhelming when these two are together. <br />
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After making our capes we played a game called <b>Cape Trick</b>.<br />
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I first set it up with just five items but then I made it more challenging for Lucy and Peter who are six years old.<br />
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I had them look away and then I took one item and hid it under a fabric cape we have in our dress up collection. Then I would ask, what's under the cape? They loved this game and we played it many times.<br />
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Then we played the <b>Fly and Rescue</b> game which we adapted a bit to make it easier for Adam and changed it to play with just one child. It was intended for a group of children to sit in a circle and "fly" to the center to grab a letter tile, then roll the pocket cube and check to see if the tile they rescued matched anything on the cube. <br />
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Adam just simply looked at the cube, found a letter and looked at the letter tiles on his board to see if he could find a match. Then he placed the matching tile on the cube. Yes, I could have rounded up siblings to play this with him and it would have been a lot of fun. But they were all super busy doing their own thing and Adam loves investigating things like this. So you can totally adapt these games and activities to fit their personalities too. <br />
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Next up it was time to make our Superhero <b>Mask</b>. I tell you what, these <b>Make & Play</b> crafts make AMAZING photography props. <br />
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I will cherish these photos forever.<br />
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Now that we had a cape and mask I knew that trying to jump off of something to fly was not far behind. Adam has already broken his foot trying to fly, so I decided to face this potential problem head on and provided a small step stool for superhero jumping. Not the best photo, there is a lot of blur, but I think you get the idea. And of course he is wearing no pants. Do three year olds where pants?<br />
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The last piece of the wardrobe was the Superhero <b>Belt</b>. He used A LOT of glue for his jewels. So he had to wait a long time to put it on. <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> thinks of everything and they gave us a set of Velcro tabs for each belt. That way it can come on and off. With the wardrobe complete I had to take pictures. I had no choice.<br />
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It was the end of the day and when he stood on the patio his shadow cast perfectly towards me so I had him stand in a "superhero" pose, although now that I look at him it looks a bit more like Peter Pan.<br />
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Our old fence has lead to some amazing pictures over the years. Unfortunately it's about to fall over in many places so we will have to to work on putting something new in. But I am going to make my husband try to save a panel or two of the fence that I can use as a photography backdrop. <br />
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He gave me all sorts of goofy poses. <br />
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This last one is my absolute favorite and it was a perfect format for a quote to be placed on the photo. This is a wonderful quote from Dana at <a href="https://carecraftcook.com/">Care.Craft.Cook</a>. <br />
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And of course the fists are out and he is ready for take off.</div>
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He learned, he played, he crafted and I photographed. :)<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-50210350453999542842017-08-08T17:59:00.000-07:002017-08-08T17:59:03.503-07:00Mother Goose Time to the Rescue!! - Preschool Fun For the Summer<span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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August is a superhero theme with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>. Who doesn't love superheros? But as always, there is not only a ton of fun but a ton of learning and amazing opportunities to spend valuable time with your children. If you have little ones at home, even if it's just for the summer months, I can not recommend enough that you purchase one of the summer time boxes from MGT. They are typically review boxes that cover all the letters, numbers and shapes. <br />
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My boys have never been ones to sit down in my lap and read a book. We never have been able to spend time like that together. But you will read article after article about how valuable reading with your child is to their later success in school and life in general. I felt like we were failing our boys, yet trying to get them to curl up for a story was torture. For us, Mother Goose Time is how we spent that quality time together. It's how we spent time talking, introducing new vocabulary, spending face to face quality time and learning. <br />
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I don't get money for saying this, there is no commission. I do get our curriculum for free in exchange for sharing our stories, but I would still tell everyone I know, even if I paid for it out of pocket. I am just passionate about the difference it has made in my family and I want that for others.<br />
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So with out further ado, here is what we have done so far with the superhero theme, or at least what I have photographed. This was a combination of Day 1, Superhero Symbol and Day 2, Glasses.<br />
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This lesson was called <b>Super Vision</b> and I remember it distinctly from three years ago. It was like a magic trick to them then and again this year. First we each had some red cellophane which we explored looking through.<br />
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Then we made these paddles. I had to help Adam out quite a bit, it was hard to cut cellophane, but he helped me glue it in and tear the tape. I didn't give them the cards with the pictures until all of them had the color paddles ready. I wanted them to all be surprised at the same time. They were in total shock when an image appeared. <br />
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Lucy and Peter decided to make their own drawings with red scribbles over the top. <br />
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It didn't work quite as well, but I loved that this project got them started and launched them into creativity. It also made them do some serious problem solving when it didn't work as they had hoped. Maybe it was because the birds weren't blue, they were more purple. So he tried again.<br />
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In this months box we got magnet wands for each child!!! This was an activity from Day 1 that I just hadn't gotten to. I cut out the shapes, added paper clips and gave Adam a magnet wand to go fishing.<br />
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He would pick up a shape and place it on the shield. Which revealed a secret message when all shapes were in place. But it was hard, really hard to get them all lined up. <br />
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We also experimented with how strong the magnet was and found out how many shapes it could hold at once. Turns out it can hold them all!<br />
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Peter continued to stay very focused and made a pretty cool drawing.<br />
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He pointed out that when he held the color paddle over the red sun the center part disappeared and only the outside rays could be seen. <br />
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At this point they were ready to move on. I set up the new theme poster on the wall under our palm tree from the Alphabet Island theme and waited for a good opportunity to explore it with Adam or whoever may be interested. <br />
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What's great is that I took no time to prepare and I didn't have it all planned out and scheduled to a T. We were there at the table, eating lunch and cooling off. I asked if they wanted to learn about superhero vision and make a color paddle and everyone cheered. I cut open the bag, popped out the cut outs, handed out the supplies and we were having fun creating in a matter of minutes, if that. <br />
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What we didn't get to I keep in the back of my mind for another spontaneous and fun moment or I just open another bag and we continue on with something new. So easy!<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-58975294660426423902017-07-28T16:57:00.000-07:002017-07-28T16:57:41.746-07:00I Can Build Lowercase Letters!! by Fundanoodle<span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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Heidi, a very kind Education Ambassador with <a href="https://www.myfundanoodle.com/distributor/Default.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fdistributor%2f" target="_blank">Fundanoodle </a>sent me a set of <i><a href="https://www.myfundanoodle.com/CORPORATE/shop/PRODUCTDETAIL.aspx?prod=92907" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">I Can Build Lowercase Letters</a></i>. These things are AWESOME! What are they? They are magnets that are shaped like the straight lines and curves you will find in lowercase letters. <br />
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These things can be used in so many ways, but I do believe, they will be a perfect fit for Adam who will be 3 and a half as we enter the new school year. Adam has a mean pencil grip and is just starting to follow lines in order to trace letters, but what he can also do really well, is stick magnets to a board. This magnet set will allow Adam to explore letter formation in a fun new way. <br />
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There is a <i>Color Coded Alphabet Key</i> that comes with the set and it tells you which colors you will need to make each letter. Like 4 light pink magnets to make a w. <br />
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First, let me show you how we spent some time playing with them today. We played with our magnets on this Fisher Price magnet writing board. I am not sure of their official name. I showed him how the magnets left a mark on the board and he quickly took a magnet and filled the whole screen in black by sliding it back and forth. <br />
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As he was messing around with the fun of the magnet I started building letters off to the side so he could get another idea of what they could do. Looking at the <i>Color Coded Alphabet Key</i> I saw that to build m I would need one pink and two purples. I grabbed the magnets and then set to work trying to figure out how to make an m out of my supplies. It's a bit like a puzzle and fun for even an adult to see these weird shapes come together to make a letter.<br />
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Here I made i and d.<br />
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I really like that the cross line in f is made with one solid line even though it doesn't lay flat on the surface. When you draw this line it should be one long line, not segmented. Unfortunately, my older boys sometime draw an f or a t by drawing the cross line as two lines instead of one fluid one. So to me, these details are important. <br />
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After he had a while to just explore the materials, I showed him how if you lay the magnet down carefully and then pick it straight up, it will leave it's mark on the board. He thought the i looked like a person and so he started to create families on his board. <br />
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I saw the brown half circle piece and wondered how it would be used so I searched out the letter or letters it would be used in. Turns out it's only used in one letter and that's the letter e.<br />
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Z was fun and colorful. This time I overlapped the magnets instead of keeping them separate like I did for the W and I think it looks a lot better. <br />
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Adam knows his shapes pretty well and he like making a circle with the dot used for the i and j. <br />
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And I am sure you have heard this a lot, but this kind of work with the hands is a great fine motor building activity and that is a huge and important step to success in writing.<br />
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He discovered how to make another circle with two of the curved magnets.<br />
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This was a fun introduction to these new learning tools and a great way for him to get excited about them. But I have a great plan on how to use them for some real serious learning fun. <br />
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Each month with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> we learn 3 new letters. My plan is to set up a tray with just the magnets needed to make one of those letters at a time. Set before him in this way, it won't be too overwhelming. I just ordered a magnet board that will stand up on the table in front of Adam and I will place the magnets on the board to form the letter. He can then see how it is supposed to look and recreate it. Once the letter is formed he can trace the letter with his finger. We can get out the corresponding <a href="http://www.dandelioninherhair.com/2017/03/muscle-mover-cards-by-fundanoodle.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Muscle Mover Card</a> too and trace those and do the recommended movement. I can lay the magnet board down and he cold roll out play-doh to lay on the letter. The possibilities are endless. <br />
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I can't wait for Adam to have more tools as he learns his letters and letter formation. It's a much more global way to learn (all parts of his brain and body involved in learning) and is far superior to paper and pencil alone. Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-83157488875453946692017-07-27T10:51:00.001-07:002017-07-27T10:53:12.994-07:00Campfires and Campfire Stories<span style="font-size: x-small;"> **This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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We have continued to steadily and randomly work our way through this months Camping theme with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>. This day was all about the Campfire. I thought it was pretty darn clever to work in the character trait of being responsible. For the <b>Circle Time</b> song we sang "Can You Be Responsible"? to the tune of "The Muffin Man". The last line changed. First it was "And put out the fire?", then "pick up the trash" and lastly "stay on the path". These are all concepts taught in our Cub Scout Troop, but it was an excellent reminder. We had just returned from camping and I was able to give clear examples as to why it is important to be responsible with campfires, picking up your trash and staying on the path. When we were done singing our song and discussing these concepts I handed them each a "Responsible" friendship feather. <br />
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During the summer months the <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time </a>boxes typically review all the letters instead of just learning the three we do during the school year. In this camping box each child received a <i>My Little Journal</i> with all the letters of the alphabet along with a set of alphabet cards. <br />
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On campfire day we taped the F alphabet card to the F page for fire. Adam first spotted the campfire on the page next to the F page and colored that in. Look at him color in the lines! Oh and his arms are colored orange so he can "be like Daddy". If you can figure that out, more power to ya. <br />
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These manipulatives make an appearance all the time. They create all sorts of creatures with them. <br />
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Next he drew a "fire" on the fire page. <br />
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Pretty good, right?<br />
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Then, on his own accord, he started tracing the Fs across the bottom of the page.<br />
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He spent quite a lot of time in his journal. Could it be? Could I have one child that actually doesn't mind workbooks?!?! <br />
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On <i>Campfire</i> day we got a recipe card to make Campfire Snacks. First we discussed what you can cook over a fire. Marshmallows and hotdogs were the obvious answers. <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> had us give them cream cheese and lunch meat. Since I didn't have cream cheese, well at least I didn't have any that wasn't growing mold, I cut up cheddar cheese into cubes. Then I cut the lunch meat into strips which they rolled up to look like hotdogs and we pretended the cheese cubes were marshmallows. We stuck them on our pretzels and pretended to roast them over the fire before we ate them. This actually turned into lunch. I just added a few sides. <br />
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This game was left over from <i>Sleeping Bag</i> day and I just couldn't skip it. The idea was to have them face down, have the child flip two over to see if they go together. I knew this would be too challenging for Adam so I just simply put the cards face up. I thought this might intrigue him, but he quickly refused to do it. <br />
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What did happen was Lucy and Peter played the game while Adam watched. I have NO doubt that he was picking things up as they played. <br />
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I made sure to make the sounds of the letters and sound out the names of the items on each picture for him to hear. <br />
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Now it's my turn to tell a little campfire story. When we were camping this last weekend we were sitting around the campfire in the early morning and my uncle asked me if Adam new his numbers. My reply was not a simple one. I told him that there are a few parts to learning numbers. First they typically learn to count, then they learn the one to one correspondence, where they count out objects learning that each number actually represents a quantity and then they learn to recognize the actual symbols for numbers. <br />
I told him that Adam can count really high, even way past twenty. He can recognize the pattern in counting and will fill in the blank if I stop, 32, 33, 3?. I also explained that Adam is getting better and better about understanding that a number refers to a quantity. So when I tell him to give me 5 crackers he can do so with out hesitation. He's even done a bit of math when he has asked me for 4 crackers and I only give him 2 he corrects me and asks for 2 more. Lastly I told him that Adam has surprised me quite a bit with recognizing written numbers. He for sure knows numbers 1, 2, and 3 thanks to our sandcastle game, but he knows more than that too. I just haven't pinned down which ones he knows exactly.<br />
My uncle looked at me amazed and said "you probably could be a teacher by now." (Like an official one in an official school, he wasn't trying to be offensive, and I wasn't offended.) I don't think he was expecting such a detailed explanation and honestly it surprised me a bit too. How in the heck did I know all this?<br />
I know this because I have used <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> for five years now. I knew none of this when I started. Mother Goose Time has trained me to be the educator I am today. In fact I would have never called myself an educator before and they have given me the courage to do so. They have helped me grow in ways I would have never imagined. They have given me so many ideas on how to learn beyond a piece of paper and a pencil. They have given me a deeper understanding of my children and how they learn, which is a priceless gift. <br />
If you want to teach your children and you don't know where to start, Mother Goose Time is your answer. I had no clue what a little child needed to know or how to teach it and apparently, now I do!<br />
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I know I put a disclaimer at the end of each of my posts about Mother Goose Time saying all these opinions are my own. But I just have to reiterate that. I don't get commission, no referral discounts, nothing. This company has a Blog Ambassador program, not for marketing purposes, but to support other educators. I LOVE this company and this curriculum and what it has done for my family. It has created priceless memories, it has given me insights into my children I would not have had with out it. If I were to talk about it with you in person you would see tears in my eyes. It has impacted me so deeply and I want other families to have what we have had. That is all, that is why I share.<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-68055895400555591022017-07-14T13:48:00.001-07:002017-07-14T13:48:37.963-07:00Camping with Mother Goose Time<span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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This is such an awesome theme from <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>! We are learning all about camping, and guess what? We are going camping in two weeks. Day one we learned all about backpacks. What kid doesn't love a backpack.<br />
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We got our <i>My Little Journals</i> in day ones box this month and Adam wanted to draw a picture on it right away. He drew a backpack, which actually really resembled the shape of a backpack. <br />
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As always, my big 8 year old even joined in. He drew a quick face on his backpack. <br />
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Then I had him write his last name on the name tag and practice spelling it out loud. We have a LONG last name. Other eight year olds may already have theirs memorized, but I have been afraid to tackle ours. <br />
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Peter, who is 6, traced and cut out hands for his backpack craft which he ended up turning into a puppet.<br />
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Adam, who is 3, has gotten really good at cutting so I gave him the alphabet cards that we were supposed to cut and put in our backpacks. But this time he decided to try to cut them all together at once. When I stopped him, he was heart broken and mad. It took us a while to recover. I really should know better by now. I just really have a hard time seeing the beautiful Mother Goose Time tools get destroyed. But I know the heart of the CEO of MGT and she would be genuinely happy for a child to just enjoy and be happy creating and learning however they see fit. And cutting three pieces of card stock at once sure would build hand strength!<br />
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When he had finished cutting his letters he put them all in his backpack.<br />
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Peter's puppet just got out of the pool and is wrapped in a green towel. <br />
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He put on his backpack . . .<br />
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and herded chickens out of our house.<br />
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When he was in the backyard I took one of the extra name tags and wrote Adam's first and middle name on it with a red marker. He had already written his "name" on one at the start of the day. But his name as written by him is a bunch of zigzags. I asked him to follow the lines of his name and he sat down and made sure to get them all. <br />
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I took a video of him hard at work. I love watching him concentrate. <br />
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And here is my table after they have all cleared out. My coffee, which is now cold. The egg we collected from the coop, papers everywhere. <br />
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Not to mention soggy cereal that never got finished. I don't know why I keep doing this. I always jump into <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> when we are at the table for breakfast. It really works the best for us because with out the idea of food being served, my boys wouldn't stop long enough to come to the table. But so much wasted cereal . . .<br />
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Mother Goose Time really can be done anywhere, I just need to get better about bringing it to them. <br />
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I put the <i>Look & Find Glasses</i> in Adam's backpack and set his backpack under the theme poster which I have taped on the wall this time. <br />
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I put Adam's two name tags that he did this month on the back of our display board where you can see the progress he has made through out the year. <br />
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And then I cleaned up our table leaving just a few of the items they had been working on at their place setting so they can pick it up again at lunch or the next time they run by the table and it happens to catch their eye. I also left the teacher guide out in my spot so that I could glance at it easily. I often like to use the discussion questions as conversation starters through out the day. <br />
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We pretty quickly moved through this day of lessons and there is so much more that we could do. We really could dive into each day of lessons for a few actual days. I just keep telling myself, doing something is better than nothing. <br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-39808426919089542422017-06-25T12:51:00.000-07:002017-06-25T12:51:14.952-07:00Shape Stamps - Collecting Learning Tools All Year Long with Mother Goose Time<span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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Every month with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> we receive new and amazing learning tools. When you add all of them up for the year you have one complete set. We get alphabet cards, I Can Read books, puzzles, color wands, number counting sheets, alphabet cookie cutters and this year we got shape stamps. <br />
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This is why I recommend to my friends who are interested in using <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> to buy a full year in a row. If I wasn't so blessed to receive MGT for free in exchange for blogging, this is what I would do. I would find a way, somehow, to buy one full year of MGT when my child was three. I would use MGT 2 days a week when the child was three and 3 days a week when the child turns four. This would allow you to use the 1 year of MGT for 2 full years of preschool at home. The other thing to think about is that it's only about another $5 approximately to add material for another child. So you could buy materials for 2 or 3 children during this one year and file it away to use it for another 2 years of school for your second child. But if you can afford to just keep ordering new boxes, you won't be disappointed, they are always adding more and improving upon themselves. <br />
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On this day, Adam wanted to use our complete set of shape stamps. At the beginning of the year when we got our first stamp, Adam tried to stamp by placing the wood side on the ink and then on the paper. Here we are at the end of the year and he knows exactly how to use them, what a difference a year makes. I still cover the wood portion with packing tape so that if ink gets on them they don't get ruined. <br />
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We use a lot of scrap paper around here. I gave Adam the blank backside and he flipped it over to stamp on the words. He had no rhyme or reason for where he stamped or what he stamped as far as I could tell. But as he worked we talked about each shape he was using. <br />
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He celebrated with each successful stamp.<br />
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These are tools we will come back to over and over again and not just for stamping. We have used the shape stamps for stacking and we have hauled them around in our trucks, all while talking about shapes.<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-26846832574368858402017-06-16T10:05:00.000-07:002017-06-16T10:05:31.686-07:00Random Mother Goose Time and Experience God Learning<span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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Although my follow through of <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> lessons may be random, what they teach and how they teach it is not. That I know for sure. <br />
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We have implemented the new 10 drawer system which has lead to bits and pieces of <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> done here and there. I don't see that as a negative though because it has given my 3 year old much more choice and freedom in how he wants to do "school". He is able to initiate school time which has lead to some really amazing time together. So this post is going to include random MGT and <a href="https://www.mothergoosetime.com/christian-program/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Experience God</a> activities we have done here and there.<br />
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First up is an <a href="https://www.mothergoosetime.com/christian-program/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Experience God</a> lesson. We have taken a long break from <a href="https://www.mothergoosetime.com/christian-program/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Experience God </a>because I just didn't feel like I was using it to it's full potential. What we did instead was read little daily devotionals from the Jesus is Calling book or spent some time memorizing scriptures from our Awana book. Although these are great and quick options, <a href="https://www.mothergoosetime.com/christian-program/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Experience God </a>really makes things interactive and brings a whole new level to biblical truths. This month is called "God is Eternal" and in week one we are learning that <i>God Always Was, Is and Will Be</i>. All three boys were sitting at the counter eating breakfast and I was across from them, I thought it was perfect time to pull out the tri-fold paper I had pre-folded. I painted a pattern on the center section, then folded one side in and then the other. Then I showed them that the shape was the same in all three sections and I pointed to them and called the first section, "yesterday", middle section "today" and the right section "forever". Each day has a little blue box with a simple synopsis of the lesson. "God never changes. We can trust him to always love us." Then I added, He is the same yesterday, today and always.<br />
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And then we went to the beach for our anniversary with a plus one and ate gelato.<br />
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Now onto day 1 learning about islands. We actually completed most of this days lessons. First Adam got to explore the new foam letters and numbers. I sent numbers one through six with him to the bathroom sink.<br />
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While I cleaned up in the bathroom, I gave Adam the island page in his Alphabet Island book to color. He chose to color the zigzag page instead. <br />
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Then we worked on his name tag. I first wrote his name in pencil and this time gave him a colored pencil to trace with. I explained to him, as I do every month, that he was to follow the lines I made. But this time, he got it and traced every line in his name!<br />
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I love these types of milestones. They just wake up one morning ready, so you have to keep offering the same thing over and over again and all of a sudden it will click.<br />
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He had so much fun with the foam shapes in the sink I decided to move it outside, but not before making his pirate patch. It made for a pretty cute pirate learning his numbers.<br />
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We first rolled the pocket cube which was set up like a typical dice. Then he would find that numbered "island" or foam piece.<br />
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I was shocked at how easily he found the numbers that he rolled. He rolled a four and found it quickly. I had no idea he recognized numbers. <br />
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I made sure to point out the number 3 which is a good number for this 3 year old to know. <br />
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And then we went to the Enchanted Forrest for the day!<br />
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And then our chicken died. :(<br />
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And then we got three new chicks.<br />
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On Sunday I was the teacher in the toddler nursery at church so I brought our <a href="https://www.mothergoosetime.com/christian-program/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Experience God </a>along. We made crowns to remind us of our eternal kind and I put a large circle on the floor with masking tape to learn the concept of eternal, or never ending.<br />
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This princess drove a truck around the never ending circle.<br />
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And today, I know for sure it is officially summer because I have 5 children in the house! At breakfast, I got out our official crown materials from <a href="https://www.mothergoosetime.com/christian-program/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Experience God</a> and they all made a crown. We also learned about how Saul became Paul. This is what my table looks like after.<br />
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And last but not least, a few days ago, Koko laid the first egg.<br />
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Thank you for following along on our journey with us. Life is busy and crazy and <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> fits right in and makes it even more fun!<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-57975866537524836862017-06-12T13:24:00.000-07:002017-06-12T13:24:47.987-07:00Alphabet Island<span style="font-size: x-small;">*This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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It's never ending fun with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a>. This time we are learning about islands and boats and much much more. This post is going to be a bit different for me. I am mostly going to show you what we have been up to with videos.<br />
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This first activity was called <b>Boat Game</b>. They first put together a little brown boat complete with white stickers for windows. Adam drew pictures of "chickens" in the windows of his boat. Then he cut out the set of matching cards all by himself. I gave him step by step instructions on how to set up the game. I told him to take one of each of the animals and hand them to me and to keep the rest. He was able to follow all my instructions and do it all on his own, I was so proud of him!<br />
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Next we played the game. I handed him a card and he had to take his boat across the floor to find the match.<br />
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I think it was the next day when I pulled out our display board and turned it around. We keep our <i>Theme Poster</i> on the backside. Then I gave him the <i>Look and Find Glasses </i>and had him search for those items in the poster. When he found the ship he told me it was brown. When we found the palm tree, we counted all the trees to see how many there were. Then he decided to move on to reviewing all his colors. </div>
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We also spent some time with last months puzzle.<br />
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We get one of these in each box and every month they get more challenging as we work through the year. <br />
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He was so excited to get all the pieces in.<br />
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I have started using our <a href="http://www.dandelioninherhair.com/2017/05/trying-to-beat-slump-with-revamp-of-our.html" target="_blank">10 drawer system</a> to put our <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> activities and it's really working great now that Adam has figured it out. When he is looking for something to do, he will wonder over there and grab a drawer and bring it to me. This has made our days with Mother Goose Time a little more mix and match because we fit one or two activities in when we have a moment and don't necessarily complete a whole day. I have also been keeping some of our favorite activities in the drawer, even if we have done it already, so that we can do it again. Even if it doesn't match up with the days theme. So sometimes we will go back to our bug theme and then learn about something from our island theme. The other day he brought me the story drawer which contained the <i>I Can Read</i> book from MGT and these story sequence cards.<br />
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We worked through the whole box. <br />
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Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-55033024366356462822017-05-31T13:49:00.000-07:002018-09-16T08:34:25.338-07:00Little Free Library - designed to look like a fairy house.My two older boys are part of a Cub Scout Troop that needed a community service project. A little birdie told me that the Master Gardener in charge of the children's garden at Mt. Fir park was hoping to put in a <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/" target="_blank">Little Free Library</a>. It seemed like a perfect fit. <br />
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The first thing we did was have each boy draw a design. It was fun to see what their imaginations came up with and we have a binder with all their drawings stored in the <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/" target="_blank">Little Free Library</a> for visitors to enjoy. The boys came up with dragon libraries, log houses and snakes that had conveyor belts and spit out books. But we settled on making the <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/" target="_blank">Little Free Library</a> to look like a fairy house because it will be located right next to the fairy garden that is part of the children's garden.<br />
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My husband built the structure. He took measurements of all the children's books we own, well maybe not all, and came up with a size. Then he built it to be like a Home Depot project kit. It all slid together and could be hand screwed. <br />
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Each of the boys took a turn diligently working to get their screw in tight.<br />
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Now that we had a blank canvas, it was time to attach the rocks, bark, sticks, and moss. Since we had to use heavy duty glue and fit everything together like a puzzle, we weren't sure if this would be a good task for this age range of Cub Scouts. We did, however, have each Scout pick a rock and write their name on it with a permanent marker. These were then glued onto the <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/" target="_blank">Little Free Library</a>.<br />
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My boys and I went on a hike through my Aunts woods and got a lot more awesome stuff to decorate it with. We had meant to have the Scouts collect all the material on their hike but on the day of the hike, there were thunderstorms and we had to reschedule. My only regret with the creation of this library is that we didn't find more ways to get the Cub Scouts involved, some of it was outside of our control and some of it was within our control but we were afraid of making a mess in the church that graciously hosts our meetings. If I had it to do over again I would find a new location for the meeting, have the boys wear painting clothes so they could get dirty with out having to worry.<br />
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Never the less, it was now time to assemble and I recruited my Mother to help. I am so glad she was willing to help me, it would have been a really big challenge to do on my own. It took us 5 hours to complete the front, and the two sides (my husband did the backside for us). The most time was spent finding all the right rocks to fit together along the bottom. But it was worth it because I love having the boys names scattered around the bottom of the library. <br />
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I do believe this part of the process could have been done by older Scouts, Webelos and up. Especially now that I have done it once and know the secret to making it look good, moss! Moss can be tucked into all the gaps and cracks and makes it all blend together perfectly, giving you more wiggle room.<br />
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On the front we used river rock along the bottom, strips of bark up each side and above the flashing we layered bark chips that my Mom uses as ground cover in her garden. We stuffed the eves with a rich green moss and filled the space between the bark chips and flashing with light green wispy moss. We trimmed one edge with a really cool twig covered in moss. I am sure the twigs will get snapped off over time. But it looks cool for now. <br />
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The sides were centered around two awesome pieces of bark that inspired the whole design, the pieces with the holes which make perfect fairy windows. As we started working on each side we worked from the bottom up. We laid the library on it's side and put the bark piece where we ultimately wanted it to be when the side was complete, then added rocks and built up to where the bark was sitting. Once all the rocks were glued in place we would then glue down the large bark piece with the "fairy window". From there we would grab sticks, bark, pine cones and moss and puzzle piece it all together.<br />
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Here is a close up. We discovered that if you pop the top portion of a pine cone off it gives you a great little rose bud looking accent. <br />
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Here is the backside which my husband covered in bark. He actually took large pieces of bark and cut them into strips and laid them on there sort of like wood flooring. If the pieces of bark were wide they would have too much of a curve on the backside and they would not be easily glued down. Cut into strips they could be glued down well and because of how he installed them you can't see any cut edges.<br />
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This is the other side with it's fairy window and the rest of the Scout names.<br />
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Zoomed out to see all of it. <br />
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When my husband got home he put the metal roof on and the little knobs on the front then we transported it carefully to the garden and got it installed. <br />
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The night after we got it installed the Cub Scouts met us down at the garden and helped us put the finishing touches on the library by filling it with books.<br />
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On June 2nd we held the official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and invited the whole community. We had the children's librarian from the Independence library there and even the Mayor who helped officiate. The Cub Scouts started the night with the flag ceremony.<br />
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Then Mayor John gave a wonderful speech thanking the Master Gardeners, the Cub Scouts and the parents for helping to make the community a better place by making this library. <br />
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This is a video of the official ribbon cutting.<br />
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Here it is a few months later, still standing, at the Children's Garden. We have already gone through a lot of books which is wonderful! We are also officially on the <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/" target="_blank">Little Free Library registry</a>. <br />
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It was my husbands idea to make the roof out of durable metal, he really wanted this little library to hold up to the weather. I didn't think the metal roof would go well with the design of the library, however, now that I have seen it all together, I like the contrast. But the best part is, this garden and the library get watered daily. Even with daily watering it looks pretty much the same as the day it was installed. The only thing I have noticed so far is that the little sticks that make up the "fairy windows" keep getting pulled out. They really can't be glued in that firmly. Every time we are there I grab sticks from the ground, break them to fit, and put them back. Super easy.<br />
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This has been our Little Free Library journey. It has been such a fun service project. We continue to get books donated to us and make trips routinely to put them in the library, together as a family. Typically, not all of the books make it into the Little Free Library because it's inevitable that each of my children will want to take one home. Books are more exciting when you get to pick them out from a little library in the middle of a garden!<br />
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<b>Construction Details: </b>We used liquid nails (construction adhesive) to glue the bark on. This is a very strong glue but it is brown in color. It really is the best glue out of the two we used, but because it was brown it needed to be used where the glue really couldn't be seen. <br />
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We used clear silicone to glue on the accents. Like the moss, pine cones, sticks and small pieces of wood because if a little glue oozed out, the glue couldn't really be seen. We also used this glue for the rocks and so far they have stayed in place. <br />
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My husband was able to get AC sanded marine grade plywood from work to use for the house itself, but pressure treated plywood would be comparable to the wood he used. <br />
<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-88113645885734916592017-05-25T13:14:00.001-07:002017-05-25T13:16:30.649-07:00Fun with Ants <span style="font-size: x-small;">This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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This is a story about a 3 year old, having tons of fun learning about ants. This month I got out the first week of discovery bags from <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> and let Adam choose which bug he wanted to learn about first. We started with Bees (day 5), then onto Ladybugs (day 1) and now we are learning about Ants (day 4). This makes the already amazing curriculum even more individualized to the child. <br />
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To take it one step further, I place all the activities from the day into a drawer in our <a href="http://www.dandelioninherhair.com/2017/05/trying-to-beat-slump-with-revamp-of-our.html" target="_blank">ten drawer stand </a>and he gets to look inside to see which activity he wants to start with. <br />
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There are two activities that we have done so far from this day of ant lessons. The first is called <b>Anthill Village</b>. This was the<i> Investigation Station </i>for the day and all I had to provide was play-doh and beans and Adam did the rest. I actually included one more thing, a video of ants coming in and out of an anthill.<br />
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Had I been on top of things, I would have the recommended book here to read with Adam. This could have easily taken place of the video. But since we did not have the book and this was the first activity he chose to do for this day, I needed to introduce the concept to him and the video worked perfectly.<br />
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As he was placing his ants on the anthill I asked Adam the discussion question that was supposed to be a part of the <i>Circle Time</i>. "What work do you think an ant does?" Adam wasn't really sure so I continued the conversation, discussing how ants have to come out to get food and to protect their home.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adam is very proud of his anthill.</td></tr>
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The next activity he chose is called <b>Ant Colony. </b>This one surprised me with it's simple ingeniousness. Before I looked in the <i>Teacher Guide </i>I saw two pieces of paper, each with an anthill cut out and a log with numbers one through nine. At first I thought, hmm, they accidentally sent one too many. Then I read the <i>Teacher Guide</i> and discovered, no, they sent the right amount. They had us make two anthills and cut out two logs. We used the spinner from day 1 that has the numbers 1 through 9 on it. The child spins and puts that number of ants into one anthill then spins again to put that number of ants in the other anthill. Then you ask them, which one has more?<br />
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The first round was pretty easy for Adam because one anthill only had 1 and one anthill had 3. He was able to answer very quickly which one had more.<br />
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The second round was much harder. One had 8 and one had 9. He did all the counting himself as he put the ants in the anthill, but when I asked him which had more, he had a hard time knowing. So this time, we lifted the anthills and counted them out on the log. The idea was to line them up on the log so we could see which one had more. Adam, however, wanted to start at 9 and work backwards. Honestly, he's so young, I just let him. He technically could still see which one had more. <br />
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He did this for two rounds and then was ready to move on. <br />
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Later in the day I pulled out the drawer that had the awesome manipulatives we got from <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mother Goose Time</a> this month. I had them in the drawer still in the plastic bag, so they were not very appealing. I took them out of their bag, put them loose in the drawer and set the drawer on the table. When they were discovered, all three boys created creatures for over an hour. <br />
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And the last thing I want to share with you is this.<br />
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Even chickens love <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow">Mother Goose Time</a>. <br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-54490067531055593382017-05-18T10:39:00.000-07:002017-05-24T10:57:04.017-07:00A Simple Math Activity for Preschool<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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Before <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow">Mother Goose Time</a>, I would not have thought of an activity like this. For math and numbers I probably would have just gotten out flash cards and counted out loud with my kids. But <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow">Mother Goose Time</a> has provided us with all sorts of number and counting activities over the years and this is something you can do easily at home even if you don't have <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow">Mother Goose Time</a>.<br />
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This specific activity went along with the lady bug theme and as always is incredibly adorable. Chris Lensch is the graphic designer behind MGT and I have no problem filling my home with his works of art.<br />
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We received a bug spinner with numbers up to 9, which is the number we are focusing on this month. We also got a large lady bug who is missing her black spots and black Bingo chips. As with most of our MGT activities they are done along side either chicken nuggets or cereal. <br />
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Adam would spin the spinner and then count that many chips and place them on the slightly darker red spots on the ladybug. He would celebrate every time he got the right number placed on the ladybug. <br />
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Not only are we counting but picking up and perfectly placing the chips is of course a great fine motor activity. <br />
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He would flick the spinner a few times until he got a good spin on it. He can not recognize the written numbers yet, so we would tell him the number and he would start counting. <br />
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Once he got all the dots on the ladybug we would slide them off and start again. He filled the bug with dots twice before he was ready to move on. That was quite a few spins. Something like this can easily be made more challenging by having the child add the two numbers they spin together and then placing that many dots. In fact many children will most likely do this in their heads naturally, especially with the smaller numbers. If I already have two on there and add three, that's five!<br />
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Adam discovered parts to a Disney pirate set he got for Christmas. He had the patch over his eye but placed it here so he could see.<br />
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And my Lachie, trying not to smile when I had the camera in his face. His eye lashes have always been amazing!<br />
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So if you want to get some counting practice in, first figure out what your child is really into and then create something like this. I did this once for a little friend that was over visiting. The ONLY thing he wanted to do was play with the toy trucks and other construction equipment. So I got out my flash cards with numbers one through five, made paper rocks and asked him to deliver the correct number of paper rocks to each card.<br />
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It worked! He happily got right to work hauling rocks. <br />
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So think outside the box and get your kiddos counting. A toddler should be able to verbally count, not necessarily in the correct order. As the toddler starts nearing preschool age they should be able to point to one object at a time while counting. This is the one to one correspondence idea that you may have heard about. When they are firmly in that preschool age, they should be able to count up to 10 objects. The next goal is to get to 20!!<br />
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Good luck all you parents and educators out there and have fun with it!<br />
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<br />Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-66991098658597379032017-05-11T15:28:00.000-07:002017-05-24T10:57:53.551-07:00Bee Day with Our New Drawer System<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This post may contain affiliate links.</span><br />
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A few days ago I cleaned out and rearranged our whole school space so that I could use our rainbow drawers for Adam. You can see how I set everything up <a href="http://www.dandelioninherhair.com/2017/05/trying-to-beat-slump-with-revamp-of-our.html">here</a>.<br />
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Since then, it has been sunny and I have barely been able to get the boys to come inside. Although today was the first day we had worked through the drawers, we have been getting in a good habit of checking the weather and marking the calendar. Yesterday, I was especially impressed by his bed head as he looked out the window to study the weather.<br />
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Today, the weather changed and he was able to put up a cloud and raindrops. As he sat there eating breakfast I asked him what clothes he should wear since it's raining outside today. His brothers couldn't help but chime in and they gave him some of the answers. He said a jacket would be good and shorts and a tank top would be the wrong clothes to wear. He also thought boots would be better than flip flops. Having your child check the weather every morning is a fun first introduction into science, specifically earth science, and how it affects them, even as a little one.</div>
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Yesterday I had introduced Adam to <b>Bug Bingo </b>and he wanted to start today with that.<br />
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He got out all the bingo cards and picked the first bug card off of the stack. "I've got that one", he would exclaim and then cover it up with a bingo chip. I have found that going for the three in a row Bingo concept is a bit hard for little ones, so we always go until we get to black out. <br />
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We made these teriyaki cereal snacks together and he was adding a little bit of extra salt for fun. <br />
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As he and Peter were playing <b>Bug Bingo </b>I set up the <i>Invitation to Create</i> at the counter. We just recently put up subway tile back splash in our kitchen. I saved a few of the cut tiles to use for our paints. They have no lip on them, so that would be the down side, but otherwise they have been working well. <br />
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I asked Adam the questions on the <i>Invitation to Create</i> guide card.<br />
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<li>What do you think the bee is doing?</li>
<li>What would you like to create?</li>
<li>How will you use the bubble wrap?</li>
<li>What can you use the pipe cleaner for?</li>
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When I asked him about the bee and what he was doing he turned it around on me and asked me the question. I explained to him that the bee was collecting nectar for food. I then showed him one way he could use the bubble wrap but with out actually doing it for him, just explaining it to him. He tried it a few times and then asked for a "painting thing" - a paint brush.<br />
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Peter also wanted to join in and he also wanted a brush. I gave them each a brush and let them do as they pleased with the materials. That's exactly what the invitation concept is all about. An invitation to explore. With the supplies <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/" rel="nofollow">Mother Goose Time</a> offers, it turns a standard art project into more of a STEM project. <br />
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Lachlan soon joined in and turned the egg carton pieces and the bubble wrap pouch into an egg holding contraption. Adam asked for red paint. <br />
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I think he was inspired more by the materials than he was by the inspiration photo of the bee. All three of them were really. But I have gotten to know a few of the <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/">Mother Goose Time</a> team members, and I am positive they won't be offended. This is what it's all about.<br />
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Mom, I am done, come wash my brush. <br />
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As they were working I was reading them the book we got in our box this month called "There Are Bugs!" by Chris Lensch. <br />
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Peter painted the egg carton pieces yellow and his hands and some of his face.<br />
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This is the last two pages of the "These Are Bugs!" book. Super cool collection of critters.<br />
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Our energy was winding down, so the last thing left is the investigation station. I put it on the counter at the top of the tower. I haven't done this in a while. The wooden structure you see in the picture there is called a<a href="http://www.dandelioninherhair.com/2012/11/the-learning-tower.html"> Learning Tower</a> and it brings a child up to counter height and gives them a safe space for them to stand. We have a roomy kitchen, so it's a great option for us. The boys have spent a lot of time here working with us in the kitchen or on school projects where they can really spread out. <br />
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Adam's last activity is simply pompoms, an ice cube tray and tweezers. He is then supposed to build blocks around the tray to protect the pompoms. I hope to introduce this to him after he wakes up from his nap. </div>
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As far as the drawer system goes, I am just not sure yet. It hasn't been as amazing as I had pictured it to be. The con is that it kind of keeps everything tucked away and out of sight. It does however keep it organized and it makes it even quicker for me to grab one of the activities and get started.</div>
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I had hoped it would excite my super independent 3 year old to have his very own school he could grab and do on his own. He loves to do everything his big brothers do and of course he can do everything "all by myself". He did not, however, get as excited about it as I had hoped. On the other hand, the sunshine has been very appealing. </div>
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I still have hope because I believe as he gets more familiar with it, he will open the drawers each day to see what surprises are waiting for him. </div>
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The one drawer he is very familiar with and excited about is the weather drawer and I could not be happier. It's such a great way to get preschoolers to observe the world around them, to get curious and ask lots of questions.</div>
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Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-8885593533412510932017-05-03T18:22:00.000-07:002017-05-03T18:38:52.444-07:00Trying to Beat the Slump with a Revamp of Our School SpaceIt's getting towards the end of the official school year and it feels like we are in a rut. Stuck in the same routine, and if it's getting boring for me, it is for sure boring the kids. We are in a slump. <br />
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Now that Adam is 3 I have a strong desire to give him more learning opportunities and that is pretty easy for me to do with all the amazing <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/">Mother Goose Time</a> we have around here. Yet, our days keep slipping by.<br />
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I keep staring at our 10 drawer system we have in the dining room/school room and thinking, it's just not being used to it's full potential. Years ago I read about the workbox system at Confessions of a Homeschooler. Each of her children has a 10 drawer system that they work through each day. I don't have room in the budget or the house for 3 sets of 10 drawers, but I do have the one. Emptying it out means I have to find space somewhere else. Which means I also have to clean out the bookshelf in the school space and the overflow shelf in the garage. Needless to say, this simple project, took all day. <br />
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I have our <b>Circle Time</b> display board right next to the 10 drawer stand. <br />
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On top of the 10 drawer system I have the CD player and the top drawer has all of our Mother Goose Time music.<br />
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The 2nd drawer has the days of the week clouds at the very back, the weather indicators and I already put washi tape on the back of tomorrow's date and stuck it to the bottom of the drawer. In the morning he can pull out the first drawer to do all the <b>Circle Time</b> activities. <br />
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From there I put one <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/">Mother Goose Time</a> lesson in each drawer. The first activity is called <b>There Are Bugs</b> and the supplies we need include the book "There Are Bugs". <br />
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All that is in the drawer is the book. Some might see this new arrangement as a waste of space. But I think Adam will be more drawn to this set up, with out all the clutter.<br />
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The next activity is the <i>Invitation to Create</i> and it's called <b>Bee</b>. <br />
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I have included all of the supplies, except the ones listed under "your supplies". But those are easy to grab when he is ready to get started.<br />
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The next drawer and the next activity is the <b>Bug Bingo</b>.<br />
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If I wasn't doing so many other things as I organized, I would have cut these cards apart so we were ready to go.<br />
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The last activity is the <i>Investigation Station</i> and it called for pompoms, an ice cube tray and tweezers.<br />
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It also called for blocks to see if they could figure out how to put blocks or walls around the tray. I figure, when he seems ready to do this activity, I will either go grab blocks, or bring the whole thing to the play room where he can build with our large collection of Duplos. <br />
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If you are keeping count, that is only 6 drawers filled of our 10 drawer system. The last two drawers I just filled with other <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1434313283"></span>Mother Goose Time<span id="goog_1434313284"></span></a> items I had available. I made the 7th drawer a STEM building slash color sorting drawer.<br />
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The last drawer I turned into a story and reading drawer by pulling the <i>I Can Read</i> book from day 16 of <b><i>Bugs and Crawling Things</i></b>. I bet Adam could pick up on some of the words if we read this little gem a few times this month. I also included this sequencing puzzle set because I thought the sequencing concept would go really well with the idea of story telling. <br />
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Since I still had 2 drawers left I decided to finally find a permanent home for our Pokemon card collection. These are all the decks and counters that we need when we battle.<br />
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I now have a huge bin of stuff to pass along to other parents who may be interested at our homeschool night in a few days. I also recycled a lot and threw a lot away. But it has to be done. Instead of having a bunch of stuff on this bookshelf that I never use and an overflowing top shelf of stuff I use everyday, I got rid of the stuff I don't use and made each shelf purposeful. Curriculum on top, Bible shelf in the middle with a few odds and ends, and readers at the bottom. <br />
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The overflow shelf is looking fresh which should make it easier to find what I am looking for and easier for me to see what I have.<br />
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But don't let me convince you it all went smoothly. This fine stack of children's books are all ones I would like to keep, but they now have no place to call home. Where they will go, I do not know. <br />
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Now, when he asks for "school" to do, I can quickly direct him to his colorful drawers. He won't feel left out and I won't feel overwhelmed. <br />
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I am so glad I took the time to clean out and reorganize our school space. I always put this project off, but when it's done, it feels so good and I feel motivated to keep at it.Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-83833100667894943912017-04-27T16:44:00.000-07:002017-04-27T16:44:58.742-07:00What Comes First? The Chicken or the Egg?I have to say, I never thought much about patterns and why they are taught to young children. Now though, as I see my older boys progress through 1st grade math, I keep seeing patterns pop up. I actually don't see them as much as my 6 year old sees them. He is wired to see patterns and points them out to me. Whether it's when we are skip counting or simply working through our math worksheet and he sees two of the same number. <div>
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The activity from <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/">Mother Goose Time</a> I am going to discuss here today was on "Hatchling" day, Day 3 of the <b>Birds & Eggs</b> theme. The activity was called <b>Bird Life Cycle</b> and it included a life cycle card with a spinner, and life cycle cards.</div>
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It was a great activity to help my 3 year old, Adam, learn to recognize patterns. Not only that, I felt it was a great introduction to the great philosophical question of "what comes first? The chicken or the egg?"</div>
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As is common around here, he was doing this activity over breakfast. I set out the life cycle cards on the tray, he would spin the spinner, grab the card and lay it on the table next to him. As he did this, his big brother helped him put them in order. There was some debate over whether the egg should start the pattern or the chicken. <br />
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All of <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/">Mother Goose Time's</a> activities have numbers listed just under their title. These numbers tell us what skill and goal the activity is focusing on. On this activity the number 18.1 was listed. I am able to quickly take a look at the <a href="https://www.mothergoosetime.com/developmental-continuum/">Developmental Continuum</a> to find out that the skill and specific goal in focus is the child's ability to<i> Identify and Create Patterns</i>.</div>
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I am fortunate enough to have a copy of the <i>Research Foundation </i>book from Experience Early Learning, the company that makes <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/">Mother Goose Time</a>. I love having this tool, probably because of my psychology degree and having a real desire to understand why we do things the way we do. <br />
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So I looked up the skill and this is what it said<br />
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Identifying and creating patterns enables children to recognize and quantify repetition in their environment. Early understandings of patterns correspond with later algebraic understanding. (Hindman et al,, 2010)</blockquote>
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This particular patterning activity was neat because it was more like a game. Also, they didn't have a pattern they were copying at first but doing a little life science to figure out what order things could go in. And, all jokes aside, it had some flexibility in it's pattern because you could start with an egg and show how a chicken develops from there or start with a chicken and show how it lays and egg and develops from there. </div>
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After seeing how patterns pop up in more advanced math with my older boys, it really has motivated me to not gloss over patterns with Adam. They really are important, and as always with <a href="http://www.mothergoosetime.com/">Mother Goose Time</a>, they are also fun!</div>
Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905530354265599045.post-8951129340143353532017-04-20T17:12:00.003-07:002017-04-21T11:49:09.820-07:00The Great Kite RescueThis story is a classic tale of childhood - the kite that got stuck in the tree.<br />
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Lachlan got his new kite on Easter. We took it to the park a few days ago and he got his first real experience with flying a kite all by himself. Since then he has been obsessed with flying his kite. An obsession I can fully support. Thankfully our neighborhood doesn't have power lines, everything is under ground. So he can fly in our front yard and in the street. There are a few trees though, so we warned him and warned him again - keep your string short and don't get close to trees. <br />
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Well, a warning is one thing, but don't we all learn better by making our own mistakes? I think it is safe to say, Lachlan has learned his lesson. <br />
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I tried pulling on the string to see if I could get it loose and it was not budging. It looked too high for a ladder and Lachlan, who normally loves to climb trees, was a little nervous about the height. I knew my husband would have some ideas when he got home from work but I couldn't stop my wheels from turning. I even put it out there on Facebook for my friends to give some advice. One idea was to train a squirrel to fetch. ;)<br />
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I said to Lachlan, I wonder if we could call someone to help. His first idea was to call Mayor John, because he can solve any problem in this town. We had a <a href="http://www.dandelioninherhair.com/2015/04/mayor-john.html">special meeting with him</a> a while back.<br />
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But my first thought was a cherry picker truck. Hmm ... do I know anyone who would have one. Don't think I do. That's when <a href="https://www.minetfiber.com/">MINET fiber</a> popped into my head. I knew they had some because I have seen them working around town. I also knew that they were a local company with roots in this community and we have always had great experiences with them. So I sent them an instant message through Facebook. I figured I didn't need to tie up the phone lines with this request, but if someone happens to see our message for help and wants to lend a hand, then great!<br />
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The next thing I know I get a message back asking for our address, then they let me know they would send a tech out AND there happened to be one in the neighborhood. Not even 10 minutes later he was here and rescuing Lachlan's beloved kite.<br />
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I really couldn't stop laughing. It was such a fun and special moment. I am just so thankful for our wonderful community and it warms my heart when we humans help each other. I would even bet, that when this gentleman got the call to save a kite and make a little boys day, it brought a smile to his face. He seemed happy to help.</div>
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Once the kite was finally safe and back on the ground we asked for a picture with the kite rescuer - our hero.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UDNWDL_4Vws/WPlISmYZZ4I/AAAAAAABBDY/652QVB23DxgyrDpKwIZky--ev6HByZ_ewCLcB/s1600/IMG_20170420_115149529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UDNWDL_4Vws/WPlISmYZZ4I/AAAAAAABBDY/652QVB23DxgyrDpKwIZky--ev6HByZ_ewCLcB/s640/IMG_20170420_115149529.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
Everyone wanted to be in the picture with him, so they crowded around. The sad part is, I didn't even ask him his name! Thank you, to whoever you are and to <a href="https://www.minetfiber.com/">MINET</a> for saving the day!<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yAita6k0ZfY/WPlIUh-asWI/AAAAAAABBDk/KOEIjiZ4asEk5-4yQggQHxZtWJHEnYmkgCLcB/s1600/IMG_20170420_115207073.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yAita6k0ZfY/WPlIUh-asWI/AAAAAAABBDk/KOEIjiZ4asEk5-4yQggQHxZtWJHEnYmkgCLcB/s640/IMG_20170420_115207073.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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Thanks to you, the kite got it's chance to fly once more!<br />
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Tracy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10482424868316521768noreply@blogger.com0